Background: The aim was to study the effect of metformin in a lifestyle modification program combined with oral contraceptive pills on quality of life parameters measured by PCOS questionnaire in women and validate PCOSQ.

Methodology:  Total 50 willing patients with PCOS participated in this hospital based single centered pilot study. Patients had to rate the symptoms given in questionnaire concerning health and health related issues on a scale of 1-7. Random selection for treatment with OC pills with or without Metformin was made. Post treatment analysis of their quality of life was done with the same questionnaire and data was analyzed by SPSS statistical software.

Result: The patients taking metformin along with OC Pills showed significant improvement in menstrual irregularities, hirsutism and the psychological distress related to it. Neither the symptoms related to being overweight was improved significantly nor the   Psychological and emotional conditions regarding the symptoms. Similar results were obtained when we compared pre and post therapy scores in patients taking placebo in place of metformin.

Conclusion: This study validated the PCOS questionnaire in Indian population which can be considered first of its kind. This can give us an objective method of response assessment in patients with PCOS and also showed no significant additional effect of metformin on improvement of symptoms in patients with PCOS, which could be secondary to either small sample size or short duration of action.

Keywords:  Metformin, PCOS, hirsutism, acne, HRQL, Health-related quality of life, Overweight.

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Dr Basanta Kumar Pati

Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,

IMS & SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, ''

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